Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Anyone been to Higgins lake just north of Olancha?

Hello all,

Has anyone been to or have photos of Higgins lake? It is just north of Olancha Peak. It seems like a nice and remote place to camp for the night.

Rafael...

A Trip report that mentions it.
http://angeles.sierraclub.org/sps/archives/sps00685.htm
(by the way, the register on Ed Lane Pt sounds interesting!)

Wow, I didn't know that lake existed, and I sure can't find any references or photos. Hmmmm.

It does show nicely on Google Earth, so it is really there, and not an "ancient lake" that is dry.

I really doubt it is visited a few times a decade.

Never been there, but want to. I've also done a lot of web searching and have found nothing. My guess is it is the southernmost natural lake in the Sierras.

I'd also suspect it is rarely visited.

Apparently it has fish but they are for some reason very long and skinny. No idea why. This is all third-hand information.

I recall several years back seeing a picture of it on the web. Unfortunately, I didn't bookmark the page. Wish I'd saved the picture on my computer. I've looked for it on various occasions and have never seen it since. The page is probably long gone. It looked like a nice but small lake.

Ralph Cutter lists Higgins Lake in his book "Sierra Trout". IIRC the lake has brookies.

The Maggie Lakes in the high reaches of the Pecks Canyon drainage seem a little further south than Higgens.

The brook trout in the Sierra are particularly prone to overpopulating and stunting themselves when they have access to spawning gravel, no effective predators and limited food. Trout skeletons will still grow at the expense of the flesh when they are undernourished.

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com

A Google search turned up these references:

http://www.fishingworks.com/lakes/california/inyo/olancha/higgins-lake/

http://www.goingoutside.com/lake/101/1010724_Higgins_Lake_California.html

yeah, Kevin, saw those sites, but they have no listings. They seem to be two of several sites that I've run across that lists all geographic features of a type (in this case lakes) in the Sierra, then waits for someone to post something.

Dale, sound right on, WRT brookies. I'd not had a chance to check my book, but that makes sense, and that is typical growth behavior for brookies. Brookies are not native trout, so it says that it was one of those lakes originally planted via coffee pot, as so many in the Sierra.

The Maggie lakes are awesome! Good fishing, close to a couple of interesting mountains, little visited, great and interesting trails to them, I've enjoyed the trip several times. Put out a smoldering forest fire there a couple years back.

I've been to Higgins about twenty years ago. Heart about it from a fat, as in non hiking, co-worker. He held that it was the ultimate fish lake, a reputation undoubtedly related to its very remote location pre PCT. Ten years later I took another co-worker, non fat bicycle racer, who was a fishing nut there. Make a long story short Higgins Lake was kind of a big mud hole. Smallish water surrounded by much mud. But more fish than I have ever seen short of a fish hatchery. Lots of bear tracks and ended up following three, bears not tracks, on our traverse back to the trail. Car was parked at the Monache Meadow trail head S of the peak.

I climbed Olancha yesterday and dropped down the NE ridge to check out Higgins Lake. Other than its novelty and isolation, it doesn't have much to recommend it. It is small and stagnant, without any visible inflow or outflow. This late in the season most of the water has evaporated or seeped out, reducing its size to large pond status.

I did not see any fish, but did not spend much time looking for them. There is no natural way for fish to migrate into the lake. Since the lake is so small, I imagine it could have dried up in a drought, or frozen solid one winter and wiped out the descendants of stocked fish.

On a creepier note, I also saw an abandoned campsite 0.5 miles west of the PCT in Gomez Meadows. A Kmart-grade tent, sleeping bag, cookware, clothes and food were scattered about the meadow. Does anyone know the story behind this?

Hi Marmoting,

I ended up doing the same trip back in early July. The lake had plenty of water then and did not appear to be stagnant. I did not see fish either but I didn't look real hard. To me at the time it seemed like a nice place to camp for the night. For me on that day it was a really important place to get water for a 27 mile dayhike.

Rafael...

Rafael.

What route did you take to get to Higgins? Was it from Monache Meadow?

I'm planning on hitting it late June next year with a fishing rod.

Todd

Millertime,

I climbed Olancha first from the Sage Flat area on the East side. Once on top of Olancha I went north to Higgins lake. From there I headed West South-West and caught a trail, I believe it was the PCT which brought me back to Olancha Pass. It was a long and tough 27 mile dayhike but well worth the sidetrip to Higgins Lake.

Rafael...